May 31, 2012

Fraggle Rock Movie Snags Rango Writers

Since 2005, The Jim Henson Company has been juggling around ideas for a feature film based on Jim Henson's classic, beloved television series Fraggle Rock. The Fraggles, Doozers ,and Gorgs and the world of Fraggle Rockis already very wide-reaching and cinematic in scope already, but the Henson Company seemed bent on bringing them to the big screen. The film has never gotten past the writing stage and sat in development purgatory at the Weinstein Company for many years, until last year when New Regency acquired the rights to the film. Little was said about the project after that... until last night.

Late last night The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that The Jim Henson Company has tapped two writers to tackle the Fraggle Rock movie script: Jim Burit and Alex Manugian, co-writers of last year's animated film Rango. This is a good sign, showing that not only are both Henson and New Regency keen on moving ahead with the Fraggle movie project, but they're also putting the project in the hands of two big-time writers who helped write an Oscar winning film last year.

I know that years of disappointment and wrong turns for this project have put a sour taste in the mouths of many fans about this proposed Fraggle movie, but I am choosing to remain optimistic. This is the biggest news on the Fraggle Rock movie in nearly four years and it's nice to see Henson moving forward with such a big project. What is also nice to see is big-name entertainment websites (such as The Huffington Post and CinemaBlend) getting excited over a Fraggle film. I can't wait to see what comes from this.

We'll have even more discussion on this exciting development later this week, but for now... Dance your cares away! A Fraggle movie may be on the way!